Month: March 2019

31 Day Social Media Fast: Day 12

In which I skip out on Instagram and Facebook for the month of March but still allow myself the internet.

It’s a day that ends in “y,” so this means I wake up to wade through a lake of dog piss in the kitchen in the morning on my way to coffee. It seems more than a little unfair that I should have to navigate said lake prior to caffeine.

Suffice it to say, it is not delightful, and this is the third day it has happened, even though extraordinary measures have been taken to prevent it in the prior two days (last night the fault was The Child’s, and I wake her up to inform her that she is responsible for the cleaning of it today).

I add it to the list of un-delightful things, which is just like complaining and probably not going to earn me a book deal any time soon.

Drinking my coffee in bed this morning, I consider the day – a walk, two yoga classes, an early-morning invitation to a birthday drink after the second class. I am tired, sleeping poorly, but very much aware, even with the dog pee, of how grateful I should be as this day unfolds in birdsong and sunshine in front of me.

Later in the day, with just a few hours between teaching small children yoga and teaching adults yoga, I feel the siren call of social media. It’s a little craving in the center of my chest. It has been nearly two weeks, and it is still a thought in my head, to visit The Facebook or pop in to Instagram.

I have figured out that I can view Facebook events without actually logging on, the public ones anyway, and that makes me feel like staying off Facebook is the best choice – for good. We will see. Still plenty of time left.

Instagram remains problematical. I have not been taking nearly any pictures on my phone or DSLR, partly because the weather has been heinous, and partly because…I don’t know. I am working to slim down my digital life, and I have been more discerning in what pictures I take and what I keep when I take them (as evidenced by the scant photography on this blog).

In general, this social media break thus far has afforded me the luxury of a minor creative crisis. I am working on many different projects at once with more time and less static in my brain, but still struggling to pin something down and get immersive with it. I think this exploration is ultimately positive, but it is unsettling as well. I cannot seem to commit to food or non-fiction or poetry or fiction or photography or painting, so I am doing a little bit of all of it.

We will see what happens.

31 Day Social Media Fast: Day 11

In which I skip out on Instagram and Facebook for the month of March but still allow myself the internet.

“Because in trying to articulate what, perhaps, joy is, it has occurred to me that among other things…joy is the mostly invisible, the underground union between us, you and me, which is, among other things, the great fact of our live and the lives of everyone and everything we love going away. If we sink a spoon into that fact, into the duff between us, we will find it teeming. It will look like all the books ever written. It will look like all the nerves in a body. We might call it sorrow, but we might call it a union, one that, once we notice it, once we bring it into the light, might become flower and food. Might be joy.”

Ross Gay, The Book of Delights

31 Day Social Media Fast: Day 9 & 10

In which I skip out on Instagram and Facebook for the month of March but still allow myself the internet.

Wildness.

The weekend is an orgy of relaxing and resetting, sorely needed by Khristian and myself. February is always hard, and this one seemed particularly difficult for both of us.

Saturday is filled with naps and a delicious frittata.

I spend a substantial amount of time Sunday morning reading The Book of Delights and petting the cat. This morning itself is a delight with its rainy dripping and water sounds in the gutters outside and my love sleeping softly and warmly next to me.

We have sprung forward, and I am glad of it. Another milestone, another sign that the literal and metaphorical darkness of winter is lifting.

I am unexpectedly glad at this day for no reason other than the sweet wet smell of rain and the purring hum of the cat and the warmth of Khristian next to me.

This morning, once we are ourselves lifted out of bed, we have fried eggs on toast with arugula (to complement without revisiting yesterday’s spectacular frittata with arugula, sweet peppers, and onions).

We wile the day again away, dreaming of our land in New Brunswick that we will visit next week, before we go to an unspectacular poetry reading. We go our separate ways after – me to yoga, Khristian to his studio – and meet a hawk in the parking lot where Khristian drops me off. I take the disappointing picture above but feel this wildness is a gift, another unexpected gladness, on a day just like any other day.

31 Day Social Media Fast: Day 8

In which I skip out on Instagram and Facebook for the month of March but still allow myself the internet.

As seen at MOMs in Hampden. Would you try it?

It’s Friday, Day 8. The Child and I journeyed to the netherworld that is Costco where the people were friendly but today’s samples were subpar.

I didn’t have the heart to remind her that today would have been her dad’s 51st birthday. I cannot imagine him at 51. These days, it is increasingly hard to imagine him at all.

Life moves forward apace. It is snowing outside, and my boo is on his way over. We will watch the flakes fall and eat pizza, then go to sleep early after a long week.

Just five more days of 47 left. Not sure how I will spend my birthday; thoughts?

31 Day Social Media Fast: Day 7

Don’t hate me because I like snow. More on the way tomorrow.

In which I skip out on Instagram and Facebook for the month of March but still allow myself the internet.

I wake up after a dread-filled sleep to a sunny cold morning and hurry off to a meeting regarding the City Ranch grant. It’s at a wonderful little diner of a restaurant, the kind where the waitress tells everyone when to move their cars because of street sweeping and calls all of the patrons, “Hon” unironically.

I have eggs and home fries because this isn’t the place for gluten-free toast, but the coffee is pretty damn good and the conversation is even better.

Mr. Dahn and I hug when we part, our first hug, and he feels like a friend. That makes me feel warm.

I go home and floss my teeth, brush, and use plaque-reducing mouthwash. I have an appointment at the periodontist, and when I get there I [unknowingly] sit right across from a mucous-filled old lady who coughs with her mouth open and blows her nose into the same tissue for the next 45 minutes. It is utterly horrific.

I sit there for an hour and am about to lose my shit when I get called back and everything is worth it because my new favorite periodontist tells me that there is really nothing wrong with my teeth so he will leave my mouth alone but recommends a bite guard for my raging bruxism. I think I love him.

Side note: I wrote the above-linked article for bruxism, and all the other articles on that website. It is a miracle my teeth survived that year and a half.

It’s one week until my birthday, one week into the social media fast. I have had a few moments where I considered checking back in to The Facebook, but I have not done so. They passed, and I felt better for staying off.

Like someone on a juice fast, I feel lighter. I missed the connection of some of my social media interactions, and I am sad that very, very few people read this blog (thanks, friends who do), but for the most part this has been refreshing and clarifying.

I recommend it.

In late-breaking, entirely unrelated news, I am so proud and pleased to be a Marylander today after the House of Delegates passed an assisted suicide bill, making it legal for terminally ill people to end their lives in the state of Maryland. Hopefully the Senate will follow suit, and Governor Hogan will sign the bill.